Jobs a Hot Topic for 12th District

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By
Stephanie Tyrpak
By
Andy Shofstall

WSIL -- One of the closest and most closely watched races in our region is for the open seat in the 12th Congressional District.

Job creation has been a major emphasis of the campaign.

On Tuesday, Republican Jason Plummer made a stop in Marion to announce the 12th and final part of his jobs plan. He's been revealing pieces of it over the past couple months.

"We think that each point is so important," said Plummer. "It deserves some time to be discussed."

The full plan includes ideas and policies for revamping the tax code, plus ways to protect and grow the oil, gas, and coal industries.

"We need to make sure we take advantage of the resources we've been blessed with," said Plummer.

Some of the ideas in the plan come from people Plummer has talked to within the district.

"If you look at the portion of this that is on the Farm Bill, that's come directly from our AG coalition that we've put together that has representatives from all 12 counties and all different portions of the AG industry," said Plummer.

Democrat Bill Enyart announced most of his jobs plan for the 12th district several weeks ago.

"There's really a lot of simple, common sense things that we can do," said Enyart. "The problem of course has been this gridlock that we've seen in Washington."

His ideas are focused on manufacturing, building up infrastructure, and simplifying the tax code to help small businesses get a fair shot.

"The big corporations that have staffs of hundreds of lawyers and accountants and folks to look for loopholes can take advantage of those things," said Enyart.

A recent addition to his plan is a policy on getting liquid fuels from coal. That came after a visit to the SIU Coal Research Center.

"It would help the coal industry here in Illinois," said Enyart. "It would help the nation in its bid for energy independence."

You can view the complete jobs plan for both candidates on each of their campaign websites.

Paula Bradshaw, the Green Party Candidate in this race, also has a jobs and economy plan listed on her website. Her plan includes ideas to raise the minimum wage and lower unemployment by creating a government works program.